The Weekly Ottumwa Courier

Iowa is clear of debt. Alone, of all the States, she does not owe a dollar. This is not the result of meanness or dishonesty. The people of Iowa did not shirk from their duty during the war. They paid their full share of the public expenses, and sent their quota of men to the field; and there were no better men in the armies of the Union. The gallantry of Iowa's soldiers was conspicuous in every battle, as their endurance and vigor were in every march. This happy condition of freedom from debt is due to the wise and economical administration which the people of Iowa have insisted on, and which their State officers have been able to give them. It is, indeed, an enviable situation, which other States groaning under debt and taxation, may look at with an admiring eye.

There is another singular virtue about the State of Iowa which should be mentioned with equal honor—indeed, it may serve to explain the wonderful growth and prosperity of that desirable fraction of the Union. Since the days of George Washington Jones and Augustus Caesar Dodge the State has been steadily and rapidly increasing her Republican strength. The majority of Fremont over Buchanan in 1856 was 7,784; of Lincoln over McClellan in 1864 it was 39,479. In the general stampede of last Autumn Iowa stood firm, even when Massachusetts was deeply shaken, Pennsylvania lost, and Ohio divided with the enemy. The figures below tell the story of the State that is out of debt. Note the proportion of parties in her Legislature, and tax your memory to recall the year when Iowa had a democratic representative in either House of Congress:

VOTE OF IOWA FOR TWELVE YEARS.

LEGISLATURE

Years Rep. Dem. Majority
1856 43,930 36,170 7,760
1857 30,151 27,952 2,199
1858 49,085 15,748 33,337
1859 56,049 53,685 2,364
1860 70,409 57,922 12,487
1861 59,853 44,245 15,608
1862 85,741 53,068 32,673
1863 96,014 50,899 45,115
1864 71,765 47,675 24,090
1865 78,122 52,100 26,022
1866 91,227 65,815 25,412
1867 90,789 58,880 31,909

—N.Y. Tribune.